Threat to bus services looms

Councillors and union officials fear the deal between bus giant Stagecoach and Pendle Council could open the way for other bus services to fall to predators, leading to job losses and service cuts.

And local MPs are to raise their concerns over East Lancashire's bus services in the Commons.

Two other East Lancashire councils are already said to be considering selling their bus companies.

The authorities, believed to be Hyndburn and Rossendale, are understood to be at the very early stages of any possible sell-off.

But leader of Hyndburn Council George Slynn said it would be "improper" to comment on whether the council was in negotiations to sell its bus operation.

"Since deregulation we have been in a position of having to scrutinise the affairs of the company on a day-to-day basis." Blackburn councillor Florence Oldfield, a member of the board of council owned Blackburn Transport, today declined to comment on its position and referred calls to the chairman, who was unavailable.

Pendle agreed to sell its half share in Burnley and Pendle Transport to Stagecoach, which already owns Ribble, in a deal earlier this week.

Pendle Council deputy leader Tony Greaves claims two Labour authorities in East Lancashire are considering selling their bus shares.

"It's known the leadership of Hyndburn Council wanted to sell 18 months or two years ago," he said.

"There are only two municipal companies that are viable for the next five years and they are both in large urban areas."

He said it was extremely unlikely that any single company could get a monopoly in Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale or Blackburn because of the number of smaller operators that run services in the areas.

Pendle MP Gordon Prentice and his Burnley Labour colleague Peter Pike have called for the Pendle sale to be referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission for investigation.

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